Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

A story from a week or so ago in the Washington Post entitled “Video Visionaries Meld Traditional TV and the Web” talks about how, in a very “attention economy” way, more and more television networks are offering bits of their shows to online audiences. This is of course due to the growing popularity of on-demand video recording, and the rise of “clip culture” spawned by YouTube and other video sites. In terms of what this means for the “print is dead” idea, it shows that, more and more, the boundaries between what’s considered “content” and “product” are being thoroughly broken down. For instance, does NBC broadcast a half-hour sitcom once a week at a certain time and that’s it? Or does it chunk up the episode so viewers can see them for free online or on cell phones, and sell the episode on iTunes for $1.99 (as well as producing web-only content that acts as entertainment all by itself, but also fosters the original brand)? And of course for traditional trade publishers, this will mean thinking beyond the covers of a hardback book…

Excerpt: “It’s a nontraditional approach to broadcast television that’s been growing in popularity in recent months: broadcasting shows on both the Internet and traditional TV to give advertisers as many viewers as possible. At the same time, the blurred line between traditional and online video is accommodating a growing variety of viewers: those who prefer to watch on a TV, those who gravitate more toward the Web and even those who like to watch on their mobile phones or TiVo recorders.”
Video Visionaries Meld Traditional TV and the Web